State of the GOP: Crist chooses Mickey Mouse over McCain event

Looks like Gov. Charlie Crist took his advice from a recent press conference where he urged people to enjoy Florida and go to Disney World. So Crist headed there this weekend with fiancee Carole Rome and her kids. Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer and his fam were planning to go as well.

So, with neither state Republican leader available, the John McCain campaign had to turn to out-of-state for some in-state help: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who hosted a fundraiser for himself as well as a rally for McCain at the UF v. LSU game just right up the road from the Orlando area in Gainesville.

Crist also didn't hold an event at the most-fertile of campaign football venues the weekend before: the UM-FSU game, a showcase where Crist and the Bushes used to pass out loads of stickers and signs syaing stuff like "Noles for Crist" or "Canes for Bush."

It's just another sign of a split in the Florida GOP detailed in this story here. Top Republicans say Greer hasn't done enough to help out and where Greer supporters point fingers back at the McCain camp for picking Sarah Palin over Crist after the Florida gov, in part, was passed over due to a lack of experience. He has that in spades over Palin, though she's far more socially conservative and more prone to sling an elbor or two, which die-hards are yearning for.

Crist doesn't seem to want to go there. He wouldn't even comment on the campaign's William-Ayers-is-a-terrorist theme and he won't echo state and national Republicans who portray the liberal vote-getting group ACORN as a corrupt organization.

Another Florida problem with the McCain camp is structural. It put Florida director Arlene DiBenigno under Southeast regional director Buzz Jacobs who answered to Washington. Lacking power and cash, the Florida folks watched must-win Florida money get shipped out and some say wasted in states like Michigan. That structure was much the same in 04. But there was a bigggggg difference: Gov. Jeb Bush. He was there to make sure Washington couldn't over-rule Florida so that the must-win state would be won by his brother.

It got worse when message-meister Steve Schmidt took over, Republicans say, and made the system even more top down, though Schmidt's presence brought far more accountability to the system, Republicans say. Yet, apparently, he and campaign manager Rick Davis are squabbling far more frequently.

While Republicans dismiss this as run-of-the-mill campaign tensions, it's not. Normally, it's the Dems who lack money, message and momentum. Now Barack Obama seems to have loads of it.

McCain supporters say Crist hasn't abandoned them. They point out he did fly about with Palin last week. Crist certainly turned it to his advantage, and incidentally made Palin a target for a little bad press. Consider this from MSNBC:

"Palin's Straight Talk Air II yesterday was a study of contrasts.   
Twice in one day, Gov. Charlie Crist came back behind the gray curtains to say hello to the press. We actually think the first time he was just stopping by en route to the lavatory at the back of the plane. But he stopped and said hello, perused the selection of jelly beans we had sitting on one seat, and even gave his business card to one reporter, after she said she was a Floridian and her parents were his constituents."

Comments

[gatorblu]

Do you proofread what you write at all?

[Shocking]

It's absolutely shocking what Charlie Crist is doing here. His entire team decided to take their toys home and cry because they weren't picked. This man needs a Republican primary.

[Shocking]

It's absolutely shocking what Charlie Crist is doing here. His entire team decided to take their toys home and cry because they weren't picked. This man needs a Republican primary.

[Shocking]

It's absolutely shocking what Charlie Crist is doing here. His entire team decided to take their toys home and cry because they weren't picked. This man needs a Republican primary.

[Casey Smith]

Who is paying for those Disney tickets?? Is RPOF paying for Greer to have a vacation?

[Andrea]

Charlie is torpedoing the McCain campaign because he wasn't picked for VP.. As if___. But Charlie: we're taking names. And we'll remember in 2010.